Twitter Stays Deleting Inactive Accounts, Till it Decides How to Honour Deceased Users

Yesterday Twitter announced that it would delete the inactive accounts that hadn't been used in over six months, from December 11. It is the right decision to remove Twitter of perfectly good usernames that are going unused, and some users wondered what would happen with the deceased users' accounts.

At the time, Twitter said the team is "thinking about ways to do this." Now the company is clarifying its account removal policy, while also appearing to delay the move altogether. Today it sent out a tweetstorm explaining the policy.

We've heard your feedback about our effort to delete inactive accounts and want to respond and clarify. Here's what's happening:

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019

At first, Twitter clarified that the move only affects EU accounts as of now. The company said it has "always had an inactive account policy" but is only starting to enforce consistently now to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Twitter then explained that it would delay the account purge until it figures out a way how to deal with those owned by dead people.

This impacts accounts in the EU only, for now. We've always had an inactive account policy but we haven't enforced it consistently. We're starting with the EU in part due to local privacy regulations (eg, GDPR).

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019

It does confirm the exact date when it will do it but plans to have a way to memorialise accounts available, but as of now, a delay was probably a good move. Though initially done to comply with GDPR, Twitter may expand the account removal policy to other regions.